


The Saverin-Zuckerbergs Go to Cambridge

by Emilys_List



Category: Social Network (2010)
Genre: Cambridge, Children, Gen, Harvard University, Kidfic, Massachusetts, teenage angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-28
Updated: 2012-09-28
Packaged: 2017-11-15 04:55:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/523370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emilys_List/pseuds/Emilys_List
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ana Saverin-Zuckerberg unhappily accompanies her family to Massachusetts when one of her fathers receives a Harvard Alumni Association award.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Saverin-Zuckerbergs Go to Cambridge

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: not mine, not ever, don't sue.

Ana looks out from behind the fringe of her bangs to roll her eyes at her father. He's playing tour guide, showing off the sites, his accent growing stronger in relation to his excitement. “Here's the building where I had my first class.” “Here's where your dad and I first met.” “How have we not brought you two here before?”

He gets especially excited to show off his dorm, and her other dad says, “And that's where your Dad first b-” 

“Okay. No. Don't,” Eduardo interrupts, frantic. He puts a hand over Mark’s mouth.

She hopes her body language communicates her stance on this whole thing, and when he drags them towards some statue, she heaves a loud, put upon sigh and looks to her twin brother.

Joshua diverts his eyes from his sister and falls in step with Eduardo. She knows he's annoyed too, maybe even more so, since he wants to go art school and sees, like she does, right through Eduardo's wistful reminiscences straight to his hope that his children will carry in his footsteps and attend Harvard, too. He'd never push, he'd never come out and say it, but his intent is clear as day. Still, Joshua cares far too much what their dads thinks to dare show any rebellion.

Mark surfaces from his phone and scowls at Ana. "I don't even need to see it. Stop. I don't care how boring - just obnoxiously and excruciatingly, exhaustingly boring - your father is being. Stop rolling your eyes."

She smirks and stuffs her hands into her pockets, and Mark puts one arm around her shoulders. "We'll get through this," he says quietly. "He can't go on much longer."

An hour later they're settling in for lunch at an Indian restaurant a block away from campus. Ana is starving. She looks through the thick menu and finds herself squinting. Shit. She pictures her glasses on the hotel nightstand until Eduardo reaches into his suit pocket and hands them over without a word, still studying the menu. She wonders for a second how he noticed that she didn't bring them this morning or that she needed them now, but then she's annoyed that he's basically obsessed with her. Like, god, get a life.

When she settles on sag paneer, she looks at her brother and he looks back. They exchange looks which might loosely translate to: ‘What the fuck is your problem?’ ‘No, what the fuck is your problem?’ She shakes her head. She doesn't know why he holds his feelings in so tight, pretending like this isn't excruciating, but he does and it infuriates her. Like, just be honest.

Joshua kicks her under the table and she kicks back. Without a beat or looking up, their dads both say, "Hey," a warning to get it together in public. Ana pouts into her menu until she shuts it with a clap.

Mark looks up, putting his menu aside. "What's it going to take for you to act like a human, huh? Especially tonight." Tonight Eduardo will receive the Harvard Alumni Achievement Award with his adoring family at his side and the whole thing makes her want to barf for no specific reason at all. She shrugs and Mark shakes his head. "He's getting an award, and we're giving $50 million to -- for what, Wardo?" "Meteorology." "Right. All brand new weather prediction equipment. Epic. And you're already getting in, Ana, if you want, but your dad is hoping this will help a little if it needs to. So maybe you could, I don't know, show some gratitude."

Eduardo shifts uncomfortably. "Ana, that's not why. You can do-"

"Whatever," she interrupts, aiming at Mark. "I don't need to take advice from a college drop out."

Even Mark's success and billions of dollars cannot make his not graduating from school a non-issue in their family. Joshua and Eduardo avert their eyes, and Ana cannot avoid Mark's glare.

He puts his menu down. "Okay. Excuse yourself to the bathroom for a minute."

Her face immediately goes hot. "Are you giving me a time out?"

"Yes," Mark says definitively.

She pushes her chair out, tripping over her bag on the floor as she goes, tears stinging her eyes as she grabs her tote and strides away.

When she hits the bathroom, she locks the door behind her and pushes her back against the door, crossing her arms at her chest, tears streaming down her face. She doesn't know why she's so upset, she just is, and she feels like she's dying to be alone, and scared to be lonely.

Eventually her tears subside and she's reapplying her eye makeup when her brother knocks and calls out her name. She appraises herself and lets herself out into the hallway, and before he says anything she shrugs.

He shakes his head, frustrated. "You're just being such a fucking dick. I don't know what your problem is." He leans against the wall opposite the bathroom.

"I don't know. I just, like, don't want to be here. Okay? I mean, do you?"

Joshua shrugs. "It's for Dad."

She rolls her eyes. "You think about them too much. Like, what about your life? What about you?"

His shoulders set in a line as does his mouth. "Ana, don't worry about it."

"You applied to RISD, your stuff is good, you'll probably get in. When will you mention it to them?"

He fixes her with a steely look. "You worry about you, and I won't have to mention Cooper."

That would be the 20-year-old company intern who worked with the engineers last summer. Who took her virginity in her dads bed when they were in Ireland on business. Who would surely be murdered by her dads if they knew. She narrows her eyes.

He runs one hand through his curls and she looks him over. No one would ever know they’re twins. For one her hair is quite straight and much darker than Joshua’s, maybe from their unknown mother - who was selected because her physical description matched Eduardo - but who knows.

She shoves his shoulder with an open palm. "Fine. You'll keep your mouth shut and I'll-" Her phone vibrates and she checks its face. Dad Z: _I'm sorry that I'm not good at raising a teenager and that you're so good at being one. Come back to the table, please._

When they approach the table, Eduardo has one arm slung around Mark's shoulders and they're huddled together, their faces close, talking quietly. If she wasn't still so unbelievably annoyed, it would almost be cute to see their dads so affectionate, a refreshing look for two men who are almost always on the brink of low-grade war with each other.

They see Ana and Joshua, and move apart. "Okay?" Eduardo asks, half-chastising and half-concerned.

She places her bag on the floor and looks into her lap, nodding. She looks out the window and without refocusing her gaze, she says, "Dad, I'm really happy for you." When she finally looks at him, he smiles and reaches across the table. She extends her hand and he takes hold, squeezing it.

"I'm so happy you're both here," he says, his eyes sliding back and forth between each child.

The table is quiet until Mark speaks up. "Are we all happy now? Good. Can we order?"

Eduardo laughs, short and fond, and tips Mark's mouth to his, kissing him.

Ana averts her eyes, wrinkling her nose. Gross.

Joshua leans forward after they order. "I have to tell you something. I'm not going to apply to - I'm going to apply to RISD, and like, some other art schools." He passes a side glances at his sister. "I actually, like, I have applied. Already. Is that - okay?" He asks, looking at Mark and Eduardo, and Ana rolls her eyes.

Their dads trade a look back and forth, some kind of eye voodoo unknown to their children, and then look back to Joshua. Mark shrugs. "Your parents are loaded and your trust funds are obscene. What does it matter where you go to school? Or if you even do?"

Eduardo glares at Mark. "It matters, of course it matters, and he's going, they're both going, it just doesn't matter where." He turns to Joshua. "I think you should study wherever you want. You're so talented, I'm sure wherever-"

"Wait, this is total bullshit," Ana breaks in. "We wore, like, Harvard diapers, Dad, and you really want us to go, and if you're doing some reverse psychology thing, you really shouldn't because Joshua is so good and he really wants this, and you should actually support him and not fake support him." She was born first which has always endowed her with a certain big sister sense for her shy, almost mute brother.

"I don't need your help," he mutters, unappreciative. And she’s the dick.

Eduardo stares at her. "Okay, seriously, what the hell is going on with you today?"

Mark pats Eduardo's knee under the table. "Take a breath. Everyone. I thought we were okay."

"Stay out of it," she says under her breath, but it's loud enough to be detected.

Mark glares at her. "Hey. There's no need to get that way with me. Which dad let you dye your hair pink?"

"Don't talk about that," Eduardo says, groaning, and she pats her hair protectively.

After lunch she gets sent to the hotel to chill out. “To chill the fuck out” are Mark’s words. For a while she watches TV and thinks they were so stupid. This is punishment? But the stupid hotel doesn’t have any of the channels she really likes. She goes on her phone but all of her friends are in school right now, it’s a school day, and right away she’s bored. Bored. And now she’s alone in a hotel room in Cambridge, and it sucks, and her dads suck, and Joshua sucks.

So she does something that could get her into more trouble but at this point it doesn’t matter, and sneaks out of the room and down the elevator and into Cambridge. Cambridge is a lot like Palo Alto, a little city or maybe a big town, and it’s not a big deal, but it’s unfamiliar and she gets lost almost right away, all the twisty streets without a grid. She starts to get a little anxious, then very anxious, and she doesn’t know what to do - and then she feels stupid and boots up her GPS, and she’s navigating the right way, she thinks. 

Maybe she’ll get a piercing somewhere no one can see.

She passes college kids, probably Harvard students, and imagines herself here in a year or so. Wearing sweatshirts, meeting people, getting drunk. She wants so badly to go away and be on her own, but it’s also an intensely scary feeling to be without her family like that. Joshua being close by, at RISD in Providence or wherever, would be nice, but it would be different. To not have her dads around all the time. Well.

When she starts to get teary eyed, she thinks they’d probably move to Massachusetts if she asked, and Dad would move headquarters to Boston. 

They are ridiculous people.

And just her luck, she runs into said ridiculous people coming out of a coffee shop, who at first have a look of happy recognition on their faces, but it leads very quickly to dismay and anger. She gets young lady’d at least twice and dragged back to the hotel, but for some reason she goes with a smile on her face.

+

Mark is her commencement speaker. He messaged her right away to ask if it was okay, and she said yes even though it wasn’t. She’s a legacy student at Harvard, which isn’t so special at all among her peers, but her dad famously did not graduate and famously her dads met there, and it was just a lot more attention than a freshman wants.

But her dad is proud to be there, proud to represent himself and their family and the company. And he’s especially excited - although he only told Eduardo this, who obviously spilled to their children - to receive an honorary doctorate. He’ll have a piece of paper too and they’ll all be graduates.

Joshua flies to Boston from Barcelona and he crashes in her tiny apartment. She takes him to parties. No one believes they’re twins, and there’s lots of eye rolling on both their parts. They dance to heinous, ancient music, and laugh and smile, and she keeps hugging him and shrieking, “My fucking brother is here!”

They eat frozen pizza “to soak up the alcohol” and he tells her about his architecture program and his life. He’s met a woman - a woman, she’s 25 - and he’s in love. And he talks about this woman in a way, his dark eyes flashing, that Ana’s never talked about anyone before.

“Being in Spain is good for you, you’re more passionate,” she tells him, and he agrees. They are friends now. She likes it.

Her dads arrive the next day and they go to Logan to meet them. They hug in sets, and her embrace with Mark is long, longer than usual, because a fidgety man has a hard time just standing still doing anything. He pulls away finally and looks at her. “Proud of you,” he says.

She beams. “Proud of you, too. What will you be a doctor of?”

He shrugs. “Science. Wouldn’t it be cool if it was something else entirely? ‘Congratulations, Mark Zuckerberg, you’ve also mastered divinity.’”

She wrinkles her nose and shakes her head. “Not funny.”

He laughs, and she ends up laughing too.

At commencement she watches her dad, truly uncomfortable in his regalia, as he addresses the audience. “I want to thank Harvard for bringing me back, prodigal son that I am, because even though I never graduated, without Harvard I wouldn’t be who I am today. I certainly would not have met alumnus Eduardo Saverin, my husband, who though I’ve threatened to trade many times, would never trade - not for a million years, not for more server space, not for anything. And without my husband, I would have never had children, children who are now graduates of this fine institution, one child in particular, Ana Saverin-Zuckerberg, who has grown so much in these four years. Tuition was high, but the cost of a child who has matured into an intellectual, brilliant thinker and amazing human being - well - thank you, Harvard.” He looks down to her in the audience. “Thank you, Ana.”

Fuck him, her mascara’s running.

/end.


End file.
